Hi,It seems that Cineform is going to add support to Blackmagic Cinema Camera in the 1.3 version of their GoPro studio premium, which is in beta now as stated by David Newman. This will be a huge step forward in the BMCC workflow.

I'm trying to use RAW 2 CF RAW (now RAW 4 PRO) to convert Black Magic CinemaDNGs to Cineform. It works, but I can't get the Cineform footage to match the CinemaDNG footage in Resolve.

Original DNGs, no LUT (forgive the crappy test frame):

Cineform converted video with RAW 4 PRO, no LUT:

These are both screen captures from inside Resolve. I know an exact match should be possible because this guy over at similaar.com/foto/blackmagic-workflow/index.html got an exact color match... but I don't know what I could be doing wrong. Help?

General note on Cineform. I'm a huge fan for years. However, not sure if it fits perfectly in this workflow just because it is RAW.

As you discovered, you have to grade it - and usual tools like ACR/Resolve won't work on it automatically.You need to pay the license fee to have it.At some point you have to debayer it, and its decoder (at any setting) is not as great as ACR, for example.CineformRAW is compressed, which means it discards data - which is kind of its point, you get it to have compressed RAW that still looks good. But for our workflow, it may translate in "not good enough for final render". And as proxy, it is just not as convenient as DNxHD that now comes with RAW 4 PRO, free.Again, I'd like to assure everyone I'm not diminishing Cineform in any way - it is great and has its place. Just not sure it is the best option as either proxy or main format for RAW camera workflow originated with DNG sequences.

I'd say, keep your original DNG sequences; use RAW 4 PRO to make DNxHD proxy (free, 4:2:2, already debayered to REC 709 so looks "normal" right away - yet file sizes on par with CineformRAW, good enough for a convincing render and certainly for proxy editing), edit that proxy in your NLE in real-time, then export EDL to Resolve and then "online" it with your original DNG clips and grade/render from Resolve. Voila, perfect quality while painless edit in post.

I created a Log look inside of Cineform which converts all the CineRAW to a very flat look. I then grade footage inside After Effects as though it was the ProRes film Log that comes out of the BMCC. It is easier to grade this way because grading with the flat look is intuitive. I also have a light graded LUT in cineform with I construct my edit with as to give me a better idea of how thing look. I have pixel peeped and compared CineRAW with the DNG and to be honest visually there is no real difference in quality (I'm not talking about previewing in large cinema screens) and the beauty is you keep all options open in CineRAW and you get to keep the 2.4k res.

My workflow is this....

Shoot in RAW from the BMCCLoad the SSD into the caddyConvert the DNGs to Cineform RAW (This saves disk space on the PC)apply the light look LUT to the CineForm footageplayback the footage in windows classic media playerImport files into Premiere pro and edit (CineRAW uses less ram than ProRes on the timeline)Lock edit and bring the project into After Effectsapply the Film LOG LUT in Cineform Grade as normal.

All the information is still there in the Cineform file if ever you need to tweek the image before or after grading, and the files are small enough to archive after the edit

I'm aiming for the same type of workflow as Christian... I want to be able to keep the RAW capability of the DNG files but with the much smaller filesize and realtime editing capability of CinemaRAW.

I too can't really tell a quality difference on the higher encoding settings... and once Cineform improves their debayering algorithms and Resolve unlocks metadata editing and interprets the files correctly... it'll be pretty much perfect.

For now though, I guess I'll have to wait it out, or apply a custom LUT to undo the greenish tint and underexposure.

In Advanced Settings, set the File Format to MOV (seems to have better compatibility then AVI), Quality to FilmScan 1 (or FilmScan 2 if you must) and Encoding Curve to Protune. Decoding Curve leave to Match Encode cause we will be changing it.

Convert your files to Cineform

STEP 2: GRADE

Open Resolve and leave GoPro Studio so you have them side-by-side

Import your Cineform files, and your DNGs if you want to check a match, slap them on a timeline and switch over to Color

Go back to GoPro Studio and switch to Edit mode

Don't bother dragging anything to the timeline, apply these settings to your clip(s):

The problem with cineform is its own debayering. It´s just, sorry to say, not very good.When you convert DNGs to cineform and import it in resolve, the quality/detail is perfect but it´s just not really supported. Alle green, no raw tab, no log mode...

If cineform RAW was fully supported by Resolve, they would have an incredible boost of demand! And with Open CL it should be possible, shouldn´t it?

All Black Magic needs to do is specify that CineformRAW files be treated differently then CineformHD and boom... Resolve's own superior debayering AND access to all metadata controls in-program.

I'm optimistic that this will happen eventually, especially if we all make noise about it!

Correct me if I am wrong but that won't work?I assume that Cineform decoder is debayering on the fly and presenting to Resolve RGB bits, and Resolve doesn't understand Cineform's compressed RAW format anyway.

Also isn't white balance, exposure etc. already in Cineform Studio. What I think is missing is the recovery highlights.

Also don't lose sight of what you final out will be, if the material target will be web based or for TV work then Cineforms RAW quality is more that capable, I was at a Post Production house yesterday in Manchester watching an online edit for the BBC, and I was shocked really at the quality of the footage, I was so used to seeing footage now from the BMCC. For me Cineform works because I can edit on the timeline in real time in full HD, this is what it was designed for, if you want pristine footage and a slow work flow you use RAW DNG

1. DNG to CineformRAW via RAW 4 PRO, with LUT applied2. Edit in your favorite NLE in real-time. Lock the edit, export EDL.3. Import EDL to After Effects. "Online" back to the original DNG clips, with ACR debayering (joy!)4. Make all grading adjustments, then and export from After Effects. Pristine quality.

i'm under mac and win, and CF and r4P work fine with paralles emulation.if i use cineform raw, i no need to color working under davinci, i work fine with after effects and colorista, when i need to work under davinci i relink with drag and drop original dng ONLY for clip that need to be manipulated like dng and not have enought gamma from cineform raw.ps if davinci is an island that not use os decoding is not a cineform fault, but davinci fault... all app see cf raw and its active metadata, only davinci decode it in wrong way.

anyway another way to do a good cineform DI is to load on aftereffects with batch workflow and export a simple CF not raw.

update for cineformbuy the color profile from :http://www.vision-color.com/bmdfilm/ 15$use aftereffects to preprocess shootingexport in cineform (actually like DI is just avaible in AfterEffects and Premiere due according with Adobe-Cineform) than you can have quality of bm curve, dng original quality, easy and lightness of Cineform

An excellent product i can tell you like happy user of Raw4Pro.with it, with a simple click i can :- backup of my footage- creation of dailies with my luts- creation of raw cineform for editing and more...

Advantages: floating license, NO Internet connection requirement, NO registration, and NO more being tied up to a particular PC - install/re-install and run as many of these converters on your network as you like!

Does your cineform interface still cope with the old SI2K files of the .avi flavour or have the .avi to .mov converter?

Does cineform hit a wall at 4K or does it go beyond.

I became a turncoat and entered the Blackmagic biosphere. I needed to future-proof a film project which is yet incompletely written and relies on a sail training ship. The vessel was undergoing a deep maintenance and was rendered into visually derelect state, exactly as depicted in the film story. So I bought into the original URSA at a cheap price and built a NIkon/Speedbooster adaptor for it.

Some really old SI2K .avi files and Premiere Pro CS6 plus GoPro Studio are a bit antagonistic. Apparently if you reconvert them they behave. It might just be my incompetence in the mix.

My original computer with older Premiere Pro and Prospect/Neo did both flavours fine. Then it died due to those bad capacitors the Koreans ripped off a Japanese design for that some motherboard manufacturers kept quiet about.

I used an older computer for a while but got sick and tired of counting frames film-style because it would not play back in real time.

Going back to a DOS command line for the conversions was a bit of a challenge. It did my brain good in a use it or lose it sort of way re-learning the few rules I remembered from DOS3.2 ( the customised Olivetti flavour ).

It is a bit of a shame that SI/P+S Technik did not do a 2K 24mm approx. sensor but their cost-benefit horse was pretty much shot in the head with RED. BM seems to have taken up the baton. I understand maybe wrongly that the original 4K was a machine-vision sensor.

Does your cineform interface still cope with the old SI2K files of the .avi flavour or have the .avi to .mov converter?

Does cineform hit a wall at 4K or does it go beyond.

I became a turncoat and entered the Blackmagic biosphere. I needed to future-proof a film project which is yet incompletely written and relies on a sail training ship. The vessel was undergoing a deep maintenance and was rendered into visually derelect state, exactly as depicted in the film story. So I bought into the original URSA at a cheap price and built a NIkon/Speedbooster adaptor for it.

and in the utility hdlink you can found a tool to rewrap .avi to .mov cineform raw files, without recompression and without long conversion time.

keep in mind trial is 5 or 7 day then you install when you have time to do that conversion, all conversion in one time. unfortunately this the branch of developing missing in gopro way. i hope now that cineform is opensource many tool born to support and give him new life, like Raw4Pro do

Use RAW 4 PRO to easily convert Cinema DNG sequences to either CineformRAW, or ProRes, or DNxHD, or H264 - depending on your goals.

I'm the developer of RAW 4 PRO. The software has been a workhorse of many people in the RAW video field for a couple years now, it has a solid 5-star rating.

Although R4P EASY is normally selling for $125 or $110 after a discount, I'm now offering it to BlackMagic Forum readers for just $29. Use code bm81off. (Offers ends shortly without prior notice, sorry.)

I'm the developer of RAW 4 PRO. The software has been a workhorse of many people in the RAW video field for a couple years now, it has a solid 5-star rating.

Although R4P EASY is normally selling for $125 or $110 after a discount, I'm now offering it to BlackMagic Forum readers for just $29. Use code bm81off. (Offers ends shortly without prior notice, sorry.)